Brandon Tidwell, Manager of Sustainability; Darden Restaurants
Brandon Tidwell is Manager of Sustainability for Darden Restaurants. In this role, he is responsible for the development and implementation of corporate sustainability strategies and policies across all of Darden, integrating environmental considerations into the operations, culture, and supply chain, which includes more than 1,500 suppliers in 30 countries. Externally, Mr. Tidwell provides information to investors, guests and stakeholders about Darden's sustainability journey. This includes updates about the company's progress toward its goals to reduce its energy and water use by 15 percent by 2015, as well as to send zero waste to landfill.
Mr. Tidwell joined Darden from FedEx, where he served as Global Citizenship Program Advisor, leading the corporation's philanthropic strategy for the environment and education. He founded EarthSmart Outreach, a collection of urban ecosystem projects with the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation, led the FedExCup Fore!Ever program with The First Tee, and created the FedEx Transportation Fellows with EMBARQ. Brandon was also the editor of the company's third Global Citizenship Report, published in 2011.
He is a candidate for a Master's in Business Administration at the University of North Carolina's Kenan-Flagler School of Business. He holds a master's degree in Social Work from Baylor and a certificate in Philanthropy from New York University. He is also the 2010 recipient of Net Impact's Force for Change Award.